Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Hola otra vez!
Before I tell you all about our trip through Los Lla?(the Plains), I think a special announcement needs to be made. As you`ll see if you check out the Lla?photo album, Emmett found the ?Subway? chain in Caracas. However, as a fine connoisseur of all things ?Subway? Emmett will NOT be marking it down as a tour highlight. I could go into the details, the lack of melted cheese, the sparse salad filling, but that would bring back sad, unfulfilled memories so I`ll simply leave it there.
After collecting our guide, Alan, we drove into the area known as Los Lla?(pronounced ya-noss). In this region there are only two, very different seasons. The rainy season where a large part of the region is under the water and looks very beautiful. The dry season where everything becomes yellow and brown as dust covers most part of the plains, but that is when all the wildlife converges in the few spots where water is present. We arrived at the start of the rainy season, so took in the best of both worlds.
The area is north of the Orinoco River, in the heart of Venezuela, and extends east to west covering 300,000 Km2. Geologically speaking, the area is considered young, its depressed savanna being formed by sediment pushed by the growth of the surrounding sierras, more specifically the Andes. It was on these plains that many of the decisive battles for independence from Spain were fought. Today, battles still rage here, but they are battles to adapt and survive the harsh conditions of the environment.
We spent most of the first day in the truck getting to the ?sleeping establishment? (loose term) and once we did (and wished we hadn`t!) we dropped our bags off and took a boat ride for a bit of wildlife spotting. Alan was kind enough to bring along a couple of bottles of rum which we could smell on the breath of the piss heads for most of the journey?mmm yummy.
Piranha, prehistoric fish, pink river dolphins, white and scarlet ibis, brown birds with headdresses on (their name escapes me), howler monkeys, anacondas, you name it, we saw it. It was beautiful to watch the sun go down as we made our way along the river, we continued spotting the birds and animals until it was pitch black and had to make our way back along the river to camp with the help of flashlights.
The next morning we congregated before dawn on the big yellow beast that is our truck, Magaly (the trucks all have names here, just go along with it) for a safari. Half an hour into the journey Alan was drenched from head to toe, having played tag with a giant anteater, through a swamp. He really loves his work! During the time the sun rose (the best time to see many of the wildlife) we saw 5 giant anteaters (you should have seen the ants!), a giant otter family, a (you guessed it) giant rodent (the worlds largest, Capybaras) not to mention caimans, white tailed deer, eagles, hawks, ducks and ibis.
After two nights at that camp we moved on to a more established ranch which had a much more homely feel to it. After a yummy dinner we played ?Uno? until bedtime then retired to our cabins. We saved the extreme water sports until the last morning of our Lla?trip ? inner tubing down the river. Now, we floated on inner-tubes down a river in Ecuador, which was childs play compared to the white water we found in Venezuela!! I spent the majority of the time clinging to the underneath of my tube when we hit the white water. You`d have thought Em inner-tubed for a living the way he held on and made it look so easy! One of our group knocked her head hard into a rock, cut her scalp on the inside of her helmet and came away from it with a minor head injury (or perhaps she has had that the entire trip, jury`s not out on that one!) Water logged or not it was a brilliant way to end the trip through the Lla?and a great way to whet our appetite for adventure as we headed to Merida.
Arassari Trek, the Company we contacted to arrange our fun stuff in Merida really made our stay there fantastic. We didn`t realise how much we liked adventure until we came to South America, and the Canyoning trip certainly didn`t disappoint. We also went Canyoning in Ba?which was great, but in Merida it was like taking the next step up. We spent around 5 hours wading, jumping, abseiling and sliding our way down the most beautiful scenery. The waterfalls were just on the edge of scary for us, got the adrenaline going and certainly worked up our appetite for the best curry we`ve had since arriving in South America. What is it with Canyoning and great lunches? (we still fondly remember the grilled polenta and salad in Ba?.
No lasting injuries either, although our bodies felt every one of their 59 (combined) years. We spent the next day catching up on laundry (see it`s not all capri?and sparkies here) and booked paragliding for the following day. Paragliding, I can hear Mum say...that`s why we tell you afterwards! The only part we didn`t enjoy was the jeep ride up the dirt track to the take-off point on the mountain, motion sickness anyone?
I went first and couldn`t believe how easy it was to take off, I just stood there with my pilot and the chute lifted us off the earth. Em`s flight started just as mine was ending. We both had around 30 minutes in the air as the sun was setting. It was both noisy and quiet up there depending on whether you held your nose facing the wind or your ears. Don`t worry not too much grey matter shot out the other side!
At this stage in our trip the rest of our group headed into Colombia. Colombia has visa restrictions extended towards the Irish at the moment, so instead of worrying about meeting their requirements, Em and I decided to have a vacation from our vacation and planned a trip to the Venezuelan Island of Margarita, in the Caribbean Sea.
The getting there was an adventure in itself as the coach journey from Merida to Caracas went 3 hours overtime and the taxi (who ripped us off) took ages to wind its way through the hills getting from the coach station to the airport. Arriving there 5 minutes before our plane was due to take off we had resigned ourselves to having to take the next flight, but South American timing was on our side, we bought our tickets and made the flight with time to buy a toblerone!
Hasta luego mis amigos
S and Em
xx
- comments